Is this why Biden isn’t refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?!

[2017] Trump’s Budget Delivers Big Oil’s Wish: Reducing Strategic Petroleum Reserve

While most observers believe the budget will not pass through Congress in its current form, budgets depict an administration’s priorities and vision for the country. Some within the oil industry have lobbied for years to drain the SPR, created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis.

Exxon, as well as the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), have long lobbied for a drawdown of SPR‘s supply, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by DeSmog. They supported two key bills, proposed but never passed by Congress: H.R. 4136 in 2012 and S. 1231 in 2015.

H.R. 4136, lobbied for by Exxon, API, and IPAA**, says that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can only be tapped if more federally owned public lands and waters were leased to the oil and gas industry. S. 1231, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Modernization Act of 2015, called for a Department of Energy study of the SPR “to determine options available for [its] continued operation,” to be completed 180 days after the bill’s passage.

“[T]he SPR is unnecessary in the first place. Private inventories and reserves are abundant, and open markets will respond more efficiently to supply shocks than federally controlled government stockpiles,” wrote Loris, who began his career as an associate for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. “Congress should authorize the Department of Energy to sell the entire inventory, using the revenues solely for deficit reduction.”

The Controversial Truth About Climate Change | IPCC Report #climatechange

The United Nations IPCC Assessment Report blames “human activity” for the current state of our climate… BUT, they are leaving out some major points of interest when it comes to our climate crisis, like Big BUSINESS and MILITARIES. A deeply unserious report… if you ask me. What do you think?

The Controversial Truth About Climate Change | IPCC Report #climatechange via Endemic Times

Related:

How the world’s militaries hide their huge carbon emissions

We don’t have to engage in hysterical crusades against Russia and China

Since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, many Western leaders have been tripping over themselves in an attempt to be seen to be doing more than their peers to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. The UK’s government’s recent apparent political coup in getting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Britain before their European partners was portrayed in sections of the British press as a major political victory — scored in part because of the UK’s willingness to up the ante in supplying weapons to Ukraine, now with the apparent promise of fighter aircraft in the future.

We don’t have to engage in hysterical crusades against Russia and China

The Era Of Cheap Oil Has Come To An End

In its latest monthly report, OPEC revealed it had yet again failed to produce as much oil as it agreed to produce the last time it discussed output. And it wasn’t by a few thousand barrels per day, either. The shortfall was some 1.8 million barrels daily, but more importantly, that sort of undershooting of its own target has become a regular thing for the cartel. Meanwhile, the United States federal government needs to buy some oil for its strategic petroleum reserve after releasing close to 200 million barrels from it this year as a way of countering fuel price inflation. Yet U.S. drillers are not in a rush to boost production. On the contrary, it seems production growth has lost its place among these companies’ top priorities.

The Era Of Cheap Oil Has Come To An End

Previously:

U.S. Begins SPR Repurchase Program As Oil Prices Crash

Municipalities in Puerto Rico Sue Fossil Fuel Giants Under Organized Crime Law

Sixteen municipalities in Puerto Rico are suing Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and other fossil fuel companies for their efforts to deny the role of fossil fuel products in causing climate change. In a November 2022 report for Common Dreams, Kenny Stancil described the lawsuit—a “first of its kind” RICO case—which seeks to hold the fossil fuel corporations financially responsible for the damages caused by the hurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. The lawsuit contends that the 2017 hurricane season was made worse by global warming and that fossil fuel companies colluded to deceive the public about the impacts of fossil fuel products on the climate.

Municipalities in Puerto Rico Sue Fossil Fuel Giants Under Organized Crime Law

Orinoco Tribune Editor: There Was a Coup Against Pedro Castillo in Peru + Some Notes

Orinoco Tribune Editor: There Was a Coup Against Pedro Castillo in Peru

Rodríguez remarked that the appointment of Vice President Dina Boluarte as the de facto president is a measure adopted by the Peruvian Congress to disguise the coup d’état. “Naming Dina Boluarte as the de facto president is a halfway solution between Pedro Castillo and José William Zapata, the president of Congress, who is a right-wing military man accused of corruption and drug trafficking and what have you,” he opined. “So, I believe they chose Dina Boluarte to prevent greater tension or political instability in Peru… In fact, José William Zapata was the president of Peru for some minutes and then transferred power to Dina Boluarte. This was all that was behind the coup in Peru.”

Some notes, to self, on José Williams, Hernando de Soto, Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Omidyar Network, & Atlas Network:

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